Prep football: Drake rebounds after tough loss with home win over Terra Linda

After a tough road loss to Justin-Siena last week, the Drake High football team wanted to play a solid game and return to the win column.

The Pirates did just that on Saturday against visiting Terra Linda with a combination of solid offense and opportunistic defense — Drake picked off the Trojans five times — en route to a 26-8 victory in San Anselmo.

"We came out really strong in the first half," said Drake quarterback Kevin Miles, who ran for 86 yards and threw for 24 yards on the day. "We really knew what we were doing."

On its second possession, Terra Linda (2-4, 0-3 MCAL) drove down to Drake's 18-yard line, but the Pirates quickly regained momentum when Reid Miles returned an interception for a touchdown.

"That was a phenomenal play," Kevin Miles said. "That really gave us so much momentum. ... We rode on that the whole rest of the game just because that was such a momentum changer. That was such a great play."

"We got a lot of yards off of picks," Reid Miles said. "I think that was probably the difference in the game, and Kevin's ability to get out of the pocket and run down the field and create plays."

Drake (4-1, 1-1) stopped Terra Linda in the red zone again when Reid Miles intercepted another Trojan pass, this one at the 7-yard line, and took it to the 43-yard line.

Three carries by Andrew Hamilton (84 rushing yards) brought the ball downfield and Kevin Miles kicked a 25-yard field goal to put the Pirates up 10-0 (he also kicked a 34-yard field goal later in the game).

Drake's Nick Robinson, Ron Tozzi and Ayrton Campos also came up with interceptions.

"Really, really proud of the way the guys fought back after a tough loss last week," Drake coach Ethan Hough said. "Defense played terrific, we swarmed to the ball. We shut down their pass and that was a key to the game."

Terra Linda got on the board in the fourth quarter when quarterback Easton English (11 for 19, 165 passing yards) came alive in the team's final possession, hitting five different receivers — including Beau Keeve on the 9-yard TD pass — for 78 yards total. Terra Linda's two-point conversion, a short pass from English to Kirby Dederian, was successful.

The Trojans had an opportunity to score late in the first half, but time was never on Terra Linda's side. After Tom Brusati picked off Kevin Miles with less than a minute left in the half, English hit Dederian for a 34-yard pass and Keeve on a 12-yarder before Keeve was tackled on the 8-yard line as the clock ran out.

"I noticed (English) tried to go, that was a good effort by him," Hough said. "He was still limping around, you could tell his ankle injury was still a factor. They made plays but as I think the coach said, they were going to be a little rusty — and we were able to get the turnovers, which was the big play."

Terra Linda coach Damon Keeve had no comment.

"We didn't come out like we could last week and so we wanted to prove what we could do this week," Reid Miles said. "TL's a good team, they have a couple really good running backs, and we just fought."